MotelvsmutetWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Motel is a noun, mutet is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Motel” is a noun and “mutet” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#30,211
“Motel” frequency rank
#39,536
“mutet” frequency rank
69747
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Motel mutet
Definition Anlage mit mietbaren Appartements an Autobahnen 2. Person Plural Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs muten

Where the eye mixes Motel and mutet

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Motel and mutet follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
Motel
5 ch
mutet

Why the eye confuses Motel with mutet

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Motel is [ˈmoːtl̩] while mutet is [ˈmuːtət]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69747, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Motel is recorded at frequency rank #30,211, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈmoːtl̩]. mutet is at rank #39,536, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈmuːtət].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 69747, this pair ranks #467,153 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Motel vs mutet

Shared letters: emt. Private to "Motel": lo. Private to "mutet": u.

"Motel" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "mutet" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Motel ← mmotel · moetl · motell · motle · mottel · mtoel · omtel
  • mutet ← mmutet · mtuet · muett · mutett · mutte · muttet · umtet

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Motel" for "mutet" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Motel" is a noun and "mutet" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Motel" or "mutet"?
"Motel" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,211 in our German list, against #39,536 for "mutet". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "Motel" and "mutet" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Motel" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mutet" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #467,153 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Motel" and "mutet" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mietet vs mutet". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #467,153 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list